Arab Culture...Industry. The able Shadha `Amr, of LBC-TV, hosted a special show of Al-Hadath to talk about Arab serials. Arab serials are a big event in Ramadan as people are glued to their TV to watch 30-episodes serials during the month of fasting. Even people who don't fast, like my mother, eagerly await the serials. The Syrian director, Najdat Anzur, was the only one who had something interesting to say (the Lebanese fellow typically remained silent, and was so afraid of offending Gulf money and was keen to promote his silly "sitcom"--I guarantee you it will be annoyingly unfunny). Anzur said that the TV culture of the Arab world is being controlled by capital, and that capital is being controlled from outside the Arab world. He also said that Gulf producers are not only resorting to political factors (like the Saudi-Syrian conflict) but that they deliberately promote "tamyi`" (obfuscation) of real political issues. He also said that Gulf producers dictate the names of the stars, and that advertisers in Saudi Arabia decide what should be shown and what should be censored (a good example is Aljazeera where Saudi Arabia has purposefully kept all Western advertisers from buying ads on the most widely watched TV in the region--I forgot the figure for the share of Saudi ad buying in the Arab world). That really angered Dubai producer Hasan Al-`Asiri, who told Najdat to "be civilized" and accused him--it is an accusation in the Arab world--of resorting to conspiracy theory. Al-`Asiri said that this is "a business" and that commercial terms should be primary. I totally agreed with the Syrian director but agreed with only one that the annoying `Asiri said: he said that viewers in the Gulf would like to see Gulf faces in these shows (Egyptian, Lebanese, and Syrian shows are blatantly guilty of ignoring Gulf actors).